Future of netbook machines

[c00lwaterz]

I want to know about the upcoming netbooks in the future. Right now the netbooks are limited in capabilities (such as the graphics card not that high end, the processor not that built for extreme application, no cd rom or mini cd rom, and other specification we enjoyed in standard laptop).

Will they innovate the future of netbooks performance and capabilities? I saw some netbooks now have dedicated graphics card but not that high.
will they include the mini cd and have mini cd rom, mini dvd rom or something like that is small so it can fit in netbooks?

Im looking forward to it as many of us wants something handy, and mobility is getting more interesting. :p

How many companies such as Dell, HP, IBM and others have thought about this?
How will they integrate the performance capability into mobility? :p

Im not that updated to many laptop because of many variants. i have this link from google http://netbookboards.com/2009/02/08/dell-mini-10-netbook-to-include-720p-dvd-drive-tv-tuner/ but i don't know about this.

[czr114]

The GPUs are going to have to come around if they expect to compete with things like the iPad. Give it time.

As for optical media, that's a dead end. What remains is legacy usage, particularly in video entertainment. That's not a driving factor for netbooks; users needing to buy a system to work with their Bluray collection are going to need the fuller factor and better GPU of laptops for time to come, at least as long as optical media are still common.

Apple got one right by choosing to ditch optical recovery media in the latest Air. USB is the way forward for shipped recovery media.

[Johnsie]

Optical media for software is outdated. Most people who use netbooks use USB sticks and the Internet to get files. If I want to watch a Blu-Ray video I will do it on my widescreen TV, not a portable computer. For restoring data there is normally a recovery partition rather than a supplied cd.

Netbooks will become more powerful when it comes to grpahics and cpu. They are extremely convenient, especially for programmers like me. They are cheap, easily transportable and can take a good beating, so I don't think they will be dying off any time soon :-)

[Paqman]

Will they innovate the future of netbooks performance and capabilities?

Probably not much, no. Netbooks themselves were a minor innovation, but the future will probably only show incremental changes.



will they include the mini cd and have mini cd rom, mini dvd rom or something like that is small so it can fit in netbooks?


No, there's no real need. With USB ports and fast networking you can get anything you want onto the machine digitally.

With calls for optical drives and GPUs you sound like you want to see gaming on netbooks. You can currently play some games on even early model netbooks, but tbh playing anything too graphics-heavy won't fly, and a 600px tall the screen isn't really going to do games designed for bigger screens justice.

At one stage it was suggested that we'd be getting netbooks with ARM chips, which would have been a real leap forward, but the OEMs are cagey because Microsoft isn't interested in porting Windows to ARM. It looks like we're stuck with x86 netbooks for now.

[ronnielsen1]

I don'r give netbooks much of a thought. What I wonder is where are:


While a full-scale roll out of Chrome OS has likely been pushed into 2011, Google is still saying that they will release something before the end of the year. Based on messages in the open source Chromium forums, it would seem that this will be a beta version of the OS. One that yes, will be running on their own device that they’re currently dogfood testing (testing within the company) (http://techcrunch.com/2010/11/25/chrome-os-tablets-tvs-windows/).


&



This is big. The tablet is going to surpass the netbook in sales and popularity. If Linux doesn’t find an in-road to this market, it’s going to knock it down such that getting back up might be a challenge. The Linux and open source community does not want to find itself back where it was in the mid-to-late 90’s, where it was relegated to servers and the desktops of fan-boys and uber-geeks (http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/opensource/?p=1258).

[c00lwaterz]

Probably not much, no. Netbooks themselves were a minor innovation, but the future will probably only show incremental changes.



No, there's no real need. With USB ports and fast networking you can get anything you want onto the machine digitally.

With calls for optical drives and GPUs you sound like you want to see gaming on netbooks. You can currently play some games on even early model netbooks, but tbh playing anything too graphics-heavy won't fly, and a 600px tall the screen isn't really going to do games designed for bigger screens justice.

At one stage it was suggested that we'd be getting netbooks with ARM chips, which would have been a real leap forward, but the OEMs are cagey because Microsoft isn't interested in porting Windows to ARM. It looks like we're stuck with x86 netbooks for now.

not too much game but a good graphics card that will help netbook a little bit on graphics. what is arm chip? pls enlighten me. :p

thanks

[c00lwaterz]

I don'r give netbooks much of a thought. What I wonder is where are:




&










tablets are cool but i really prefer a computer with keyboard such as laptop/netbook. that is my personal preference ;)

[Paqman]

what is arm chip? pls enlighten me. :p


ARM is a processor architecture. They're commonly used in things like embedded systems, routers, smartphones, etc. Their main advantage is they use much less power, so you get great battery life.

[uRock]

ARM is a processor architecture. They're commonly used in things like embedded systems, routers, smartphones, etc. Their main advantage is they use much less power, so you get great battery life.

I already get 6-8 hours on my EeePC, so ARM would probably put it at more than 10 hours, which is awesome.

[c00lwaterz]

ARM is a processor architecture. They're commonly used in things like embedded systems, routers, smartphones, etc. Their main advantage is they use much less power, so you get great battery life.

so this is like the processor such as intel and amd? do they process faster?

ig microsoft is not interested, can linux be with arm without microsoft? it is better without microsoft so that the manufacturer will support netbooks for linux hehe

[joepie91]

Probably not much, no. Netbooks themselves were a minor innovation, but the future will probably only show incremental changes.



No, there's no real need. With USB ports and fast networking you can get anything you want onto the machine digitally.

With calls for optical drives and GPUs you sound like you want to see gaming on netbooks. You can currently play some games on even early model netbooks, but tbh playing anything too graphics-heavy won't fly, and a 600px tall the screen isn't really going to do games designed for bigger screens justice.

At one stage it was suggested that we'd be getting netbooks with ARM chips, which would have been a real leap forward, but the OEMs are cagey because Microsoft isn't interested in porting Windows to ARM. It looks like we're stuck with x86 netbooks for now.

There are plenty of ARM netbooks available for <$100 from various Chinese/HongKong sites. Suntekstore, BuyInCoins, and DealExtreme all ship those netbooks if I'm correct.

Maybe someone is interesting in a bit of hack and slash with those thingies to get something decent running on it.

[FuturePilot]

I want to know about the upcoming netbooks in the future. Right now the netbooks are limited in capabilities (such as the graphics card not that high end, the processor not that built for extreme application, no cd rom or mini cd rom, and other specification we enjoyed in standard laptop).

Netbooks aren't and never were designed for intensive tasks. People buy them, then use them for purposes they were never designed for then complain all over the internet about how much netbooks suck. This is where most of the netbook hate comes from. Used properly, netbooks are great.

As for CDs, CDs are a dying media. And good riddance too. They just flat out stink.

[t0p]

Netbooks aren't and never were designed for intensive tasks. People buy them, then use them for purposes they were never designed for then complain all over the internet about how much netbooks suck. This is where most the netbook hate comes from. Used properly, netbooks are great.

Although my puny netbook is especially puny (EeePC 701 for cripe's sake!) I can still do quite a bit with it; connecting to my home desktop with ssh -X is good enough for me. I intend to upgrade netbook (maybe to a laptop, I haven't decided yet) but I'm in no hurry right now.



As for CDs, CDs are a dying media. And good riddance too. They just flat out stink.

I'm with you on that one! USB thumb-drives and fast internet have all but killed the CD.

[Oxwivi]

Personally, I think if the netbook were sufficiently capable of your regular office desktops, it'd be great if we could take them home or to office and hook em up to monitors or projectors to do normal computing.

[Paqman]

so this is like the processor such as intel and amd? do they process faster?


No, Intel and AMD both use the same architecture (x86 or x86-64). ARM is different. The company behind it licenses the technology to lots of different chip manufacturers who produce the actual chips. ARM chips are not particularly fast, but they use less power than x86 chips of the same performance.



ig microsoft is not interested, can linux be with arm without microsoft?

Yes, there are already ARM versions of Debian, Ubuntu, etc. But none of the OEMs are really that interested in pushing them seriously. After the debacle with Linux on the early netbooks they believe that there's no demand in the market for anything other than Windows. There's a certain amount of truth to that, but part of the problem was their own making when they decided to ship crap versions of Linux on netbooks instead of using an established distro like Ubuntu or Fedora.

[Untitled_No4]

I have a laptop at the moment which I also use as a desktop replacement by having a dock with a keyboard, a mouse and two screens connected to it. If there was any "netbook" that could do the same it would probably be my next machine since when I use it "on the road" it would be nicer to have something lighter and smaller (but not too small).

Thus said, there are a few devices from Lenovo which takes the netbook concept and then take it a bit further.

The first is the Thinkpad Edge (http://shop.lenovo.com/us/landing_pages/thinkpad/2010/Edge). It is bigger than a netbook, but the design is inspired by netbooks and it's therefore slightly smaller and lighter than a normal laptop, although it does have an ATI graphic card and a dual core processor (Intel or ATI). It's obviously not a netbook, but it's the closest a laptop comes to one (that I've seen, at least).

The second is the IdeaPad U1, which is a netbook and with a detachable screen that becomes a stand-alone tablet. You can see pictures here: http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/05/lenovo-ideapad-u1-hybrid-hands-on-and-impressions. It's been announced a while ago but I don't think it's available yet, and perhaps it's been shelved altogether, but the idea is out there and perhaps we'll see something like that again.

The third is the Skylight (http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/05/lenovo-skylight-hands-on-and-impressions) which is netbook inspired by smartphones. The idea with that device is that, like a smart phone, it is always on and the battery should last as long that of a smartphone. It is supposed to be light so you can carry it around easily. It was supposed to come with a Skylight OS, which was Linux based but proprietary, but Lenovo have shelved that idea and I think they're planning on going with Android instead.

So while the Thinkpad Edge and the Skylight are not really netbooks, I think their design owe a lot to the netbook. I don't know much about the plans of other companies since I only really ever follow Lenovo since I find them a bit more exciting (and since I'm a Thinkpad owner).

[c00lwaterz]

No, Intel and AMD both use the same architecture (x86 or x86-64). ARM is different. The company behind it licenses the technology to lots of different chip manufacturers who produce the actual chips. ARM chips are not particularly fast, but they use less power than x86 chips of the same performance.



Yes, there are already ARM versions of Debian, Ubuntu, etc. But none of the OEMs are really that interested in pushing them seriously. After the debacle with Linux on the early netbooks they believe that there's no demand in the market for anything other than Windows. There's a certain amount of truth to that, but part of the problem was their own making when they decided to ship crap versions of Linux on netbooks instead of using an established distro like Ubuntu or Fedora.

so if this is same performance or speed then it is better because it will save battery. :p

[madjr]

Yes, there are already ARM versions of Debian, Ubuntu, etc. But none of the OEMs are really that interested in pushing them seriously. After the debacle with Linux on the early netbooks they believe that there's no demand in the market for anything other than Windows. There's a certain amount of truth to that, but part of the problem was their own making when they decided to ship crap versions of Linux on netbooks instead of using an established distro like Ubuntu or Fedora.

you can thank Asus for going with xandros

and acer for going with linpus...

both pretty bad choices.

[t0p]

you can thank Asus for going with xandros


Xandros... what was Asus thinking of?!!

It also didn't help that ignorant sales staff made out that Linux was Windows.

Idiots.

[c00lwaterz]

you can thank Asus for going with xandros

and acer for going with linpus...

both pretty bad choices.

i don't like xandros. it's kinda commercialise. the linpus, i don't have any idea with it. right now i will check in web about linpus. i think they should not put commercial linux products. not good versus the microsoft.

The benefit of linux is free, open source, or affordability. if it is introduce in commercial then users might not appreciate it comparing to windows. The things that push me to try ubuntu is the free of use. :p